Along the way
by Literaturefangirl
Summary: On the run from a relentless beast, with no crew to help him. Scotty's only objective was to stay alive. Not a very easy thing to do when you're carrying an abandoned baby in your arms!
1. Discovery

It loomed in his mind as he fled through the forest. The possibility that he was about to be devoured by the reptilian creature that was chasing after him. It was useful for one thing though. It gave him constant motivation to run, no matter how tired he was getting. The fear of getting eaten will do that to you.

A ravenous 'dinosaur' was not the only thing that Scotty had to worry about, however. He also had the loss of communications with the Enterprise to contend with, on top of it all.

Splitting up away teams, causing the extinction of species and interfering with comms and transporters. That's all asteroids were good for. Scotty reflected.

With his eyes fixed on a potential escape route as he ran, Scotty didn't notice the fallen log in his path and tripped against it, sending him flying to the ground. The impact of falling flat on his torso making him groan.

Getting up, Scotty wiped his dirt covered hands on his shirt, making him wince. He could now add grazed hands to the list of injuries caused by the fall. But those precious seconds recovering had a price. One that his unrelenting pursuer was quick to remind him of, with an ear-piercing roar to remind him that it was getting close.

But he had not been the only one to hear the roar, Scotty realized as he heard a wailing sound coming from a nearby bush behind him. Approaching the bush, Scotty found the source of the sound; a baby, dressed in tattered green rags.

Picking up the baby in his arms, Scotty temporarily forgot about his troubles and exclaimed, "Aren't _you_ a cute one?" His gentle voice comforted the baby and silenced its cries. With facial ridges on its bright orange skin and green garments, the baby reminded Scotty of a little pumpkin.

Now's not the time to be thinking about food! Scotty reproached himself.

"We best get a move on." He told the baby. If they didn't, they would _both_ be food.

Scotty didn't know which sound he dreaded the most. The roar of the beast determined to kill him or the sound of the crying baby. He had slowed his pace from a fast run to a slow trot so as to not disturb the little pumpkin, but even the gentlest of paces could bring out a cry from the infant, no matter how hard he tried to keep it comfortable.

As Scotty's journey continued, the temperature in the dense forest he was traversing began to drop. With the baby's chest cradled against his, Scotty could feel the shivers coming from its tiny body. "We can't have you catching a cold!" He said to the baby and placed it on the ground, so he could remove his shirt to use as a blanket for the baby.

With his shirt covering his face as he removed it, Scotty was spared from the terrifying sight of having a flaming asteroid crashing down a few metres, from where he was standing.

"Holy _shit_!" Scotty cursed, once he had completely removed his shirt and witnessed the cause of the deafening sound he had just heard.

"Pardon my language." He excused himself to the baby, despite it understanding neither the profanity nor the apology.

The asteroid itself was about two metres tall and gave off a bright purple glow. It had left a crater of charred grass on the site of impact, which gave Scotty an idea.

Walking towards the asteroid, Scotty reached out to it with his arm and felt the warmth still radiating from it. Returning to the baby he had put aside, Scotty placed it inside his shirt and wrapped the sleeves around its body. With the baby in his arms once more, Scotty sat down close to the asteroid to warm the shivering bundle he was holding.

"Is that better, little one? _It is, isn't it_?" He cooed fondly and stroked the baby's head softly, which it seemed to appreciate judging from the happy gurgles it was making.

"I haven't done this in a long time, mind you, but you don't seem to be crying so I must be doing _something_ right!" He confessed, recalling the times long ago when he had taken care of his younger sister.

But the tender moment between the two was cut short, with the foreboding sound of cracking trees. Their hunter had returned and was charging straight towards them!

"Time to make our exit!" Scotty rose and bolted away from the scene. As Scotty continued to run away, the dense vegetation of the forest began to thin out, until a clearing was visible up ahead.

The only obstacle in getting to it unfortunately, was a wide chasm separating the two tracts of land.

Heading towards it with as much speed as he could muster, Scotty could feel his trepidation being replaced with the warm feeling of relief, the closer he came to being out of the savage creature's reach.

That reach, in reality was much closer than Scotty thought. Believing that its prey was within killing distance, it attempted to bite into Scotty. Luckily, he had already reached the edge of the chasm and leaped towards safety. But the engineer's leap had not made enough distance and he narrowly missed landing on the other side.

Hanging on to the edge of the terrain with one arm and the baby in the other, Scotty carefully lifted up the crying baby and placed it on the ground. With both arms now free, Scotty pulled himself up, lay down on the ground and muttered, " _We made it_ …"

Admitting defeat, the creature gave one last thundering last roar and turned back. So loud was the roar that Scotty nearly didn't hear the sound of a shuttle landing in the clearing.

"Scotty, are you alright?" Scotty heard a voice coming from the shuttle. It belonged to Scotty's colleague, Dr. McCoy.

"When you got separated from us, and we couldn't get a fix on you, we feared the worst…" McCoy fussed about Scotty's safety as he pulled him up to his feet.

" _Aye!_ And you had good reason to. That scaly bastard over there was hunting me down like a bloody hound!" Scotty complained.

"I also found something along the way." He picked the baby up from the ground and placed it in McCoy's arms.

"You found a _baby_?" McCoy asked with disbelief. He had not expected something like _this_ to happen.

"In the middle of the forest. Left out there like a piece of meat." Scotty said sadly.

"Oh. I'm going to need another shirt." He pointed out.

"We'll send one for you." McCoy replied.

"And a bottle of whiskey." He added.

"You can get that yourself." McCoy glowered, not humouring Scotty's request.

Back aboard the Enterprise, due to worsening weather conditions that prevented the safe return of the infant, Scotty sat next to the baby girl's incubator in the intensive care unit. Keeping an eye on her as she slept, as her personal guardian.

" _Cheers_ , lassie." Scotty raised his glass in the direction of the incubator and drank a well-deserved glass of whiskey.

* * *

 **I watched 'Friday's Child' again. I loved seeing Bones speaking 'baby' and I thought, "Why don't I write Scotty looking after a baby?" So I wrote this. (Fic also inspired by a few events with Buck from Ice Age 5. You'll know which parts if you've seen the movie.)**

 **Please make sure to leave a review, if you enjoyed my story and thanks for reading!** **Next chapter: Adoption.**


	2. Adoption

"How are the first-aid treatments coming along?" Captain Kirk asked Bones as he entered the bridge.

"As well they can be, with asteroids falling over our heads and strong winds fanning the flames." Bones alluded to the problems he had encountered sarcastically.

"You find a home for that baby yet?"

"That's the thing. The Biturans have a strict policy with children. Couples are only allowed to have one child and having a girl as your only child is seen as 'unfavourable'." Bones explained the Bituran's culture to the captain.

"They're a proud people Jim, they're not going to welcome us with open arms when we come to them with evidence of wrongdoing." Bones reminded him. Finding a family for that baby would not be an easy task.

"So go knock on a few doors. Find _someone_ that can take that baby in." Kirk suggested.

"Right." Bones complied and left the bridge.

On the surface of the planet Endiron, home to the Bituran people. Scotty, Uhura and Bones were having little luck communicating with the residents. Coming across many people with insults to hurl at them or better yet those who simply slammed their doors in their faces at the sight of the baby.

"This is getting us nowhere." Scotty was the first to speak up, after a string of rejections.

Pepita, which was the name that Scotty had given to her, was not disturbed by any of it. In fact, she was enjoying the walk outdoors in Scotty's arms and gurgling happily to herself.

"Well, I'm glad _one_ of us is enjoying herself." Scotty exclaimed, making Uhura smile at his outburst.

Unable to contain herself any longer, Uhura excused herself from the party and headed in the direction of something that had caught her eye. Unbeknownst to Bones and Scotty, Uhura had noticed a woman trailing them ever since they had set out to find a potential family for Pepita.

At first she thought the woman was just curious, but as time passed and as the woman continued her pursuit, Uhura began to suspect that she had found the one who could become Pepita's caretaker.

Walking around the village Bones and Scotty could see ensigns and Biturans carrying stretchers together with sheets over the deceased Bituran victims; unfortunate casualties of the asteroid showers.

"The asteroid showers have hit them pretty hard." Bones observed sadly.

"Aye." Scotty agreed quietly.

"I found someone who wants to speak with us." Uhura re-joined Bones and Scotty and introduced the woman she had found to them.

"This is Umali'Qa. She lost her daughter in a fire caused by the asteroids. She wants to know if it's OK for her to adopt the baby."

"Of course it is! It's not like I'm her father or anything, she doesn't need my permission." Scotty answered, a little defensively. He had bonded with that child; it was only natural that he be reluctant in letting her go.

"Goodbye, gorgeous." He smiled at Pepita one last time and gave her to Umali'Qa.

With the baby in her arms, Umali'Qa rejoiced in her native language.

"She said 'Thank you, for this treasure.'" Uhura translated, proving that not all Biturans shared the view that daughters were unfavourable.

* * *

 **And thus concludes the story of Scotty's little pumpkin! Thanks for reading!  
**


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